India's Heritage City Races To Save Icons From Polluted Ruin

Conservation experts warn Ahmedabad, one of the world's most polluted cities, faces a mammoth task defending its newly won UNESCO status as its fragile cultural icons decay under neglect, traffic and trash.

Ahmedabad: Traffic chokes the centuries-old stone archway into Ahmedabad's historic quarter, the snarl of honking rickshaws and sputtering buses coats the monuments of India's only heritage city in a greasy layer of soot.

Conservation experts warn Ahmedabad, one of the world's most polluted cities, faces a mammoth task defending its newly won UNESCO status as its fragile cultural icons decay under neglect, traffic and trash.

The 600-year-old enclave was named India's first 'World Heritage City' in July, despite warnings from some of UNESCO's own experts that it lacked a convincing plan for protecting its ancient citadels, mosques and tombs.

Ahmedabad hosts the towering Bhadra fort, the legendary stone latticework of the 16th-century Sidi Saiyyed mosque, and countless relics fusing the unique Hindu and Muslim architectural styles of its conquerors.

Authorities hope the global recognition from the UN's cultural body will restore community pride in the crumbling, garbage-strewn old city.

"They themselves also will be slightly more restrained in dirtying the places," said PK Ghosh, chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's heritage conservation committee, of the city's inhabitants.

But many families that once fastidiously tended to ornate wooden homes in the old city are leaving in droves for the comforts of the modern city outside, tired of shabby living conditions.

Treasures In Ruin

Jagruti Vyas, a long-term resident, hoped the UNESCO listing would bring standards in her dilapidated neighbourhood into line with newer areas beyond the old city's walls.

"We hope to see similar changes, such as this part of the city becoming cleaner," she told AFP from the narrow doorway of her wooden home.

But it is the pressures of modern Ahmedabad, the chronic air pollution, crushing traffic and chaotic urban sprawl, which experts say are also rapidly eroding its cultural capital.

The cramped heritage district was never built for cars, yet today thousands of trucks and rickshaws are diverted through its narrow lanes and alleys.

The grinding congestion tears apart roads and fouls the air with fumes, streaking stone-carved monuments with black exhaust stains.